Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The setting sun cast long, blood-orange shadows across the sprawling white-marble expanse of Glorious Heaven City.

The air, heavy with the scent of ozone, kicked-up dust, and scorched stone, finally began to cool as the frantic clash of weapons and booming shouts of martial challengers wound down to a rhythmic close.

After a while, the intense, high-stakes selection competition finally ended, and all those eligible to enter have all been chosen.

Across the dozens of shattered makeshift rings, the final bouts had concluded without further incident.

The hundred independent spots, carved out through sheer grit, blood, and desperate ambition, were now firmly occupied by a battered yet fiercely proud assortment of rogue swordsmen, vagrant daoists, solitary clan heirs, and hidden talents.

Alongside the core disciples and Spirit Ascension elders representing the top ten illustrious sects, they all stood in a neat, imposing assembly before the towering central dais.

Standing gracefully at the edge of the high platform, Xun Xie’er looked down upon the gathered vanguard.

The fading sunlight caught the intricate silver phoenix embroidery of her azure gown, casting a regal, ethereal shimmer around her form.

Her crystalline silver eyes swept across the faces of every single warrior who had earned their place this day.

She stepped forward, raising her jade like hands to deliver a final, resonant speech to send them off.

”Brave cultivators of the Ancient Heaven Star,” Xun Xie’er began, her voice infused with the clear, bell-like timbre of her 9th-stage Nirvana Rebirth cultivation, effortlessly blanketing the silence of the plaza. ”Look around you. Today, every single one of you standing before this dais has proven that your spine is forged of tempered steel and your heart beats with the unyielding spirit of our world. You have claimed your right to tread upon the forgotten paths of our ancestors not through lineage or empty words, but through the blood, sweat, and fire of true martial merit.”

The gathered disciples and rogue warriors straightened their backs, their chests swelling with pride under the warm, approving gaze of the White Dragon Emperor’s wife.

”The Celestial Dragon Vault is a realm of profound fortune, but it is equally a crucible of unforgiving trials,” Xun Xie’er continued, her tone shifting to one of grave, sovereign solemnity. ”Within its ancient boundaries sleep primordial beast souls, forgotten arrays, and of course, the ancient legacies. Seek your destiny, seize your opportunities, and remember the honor of the sects and families whose hopes ride upon your shoulders. Let our ancestors bear witness to the glory you bring forth!”

She lowered her hands, turning her gaze toward the sky where the colossal golden dragon ark hummed with dormant power.

”The auspicious hour draws near,” she commanded with clear, decisive authority. ”All selected candidates, hear my decree—board the Profound Ark at once! I shall personally navigate the vessel and lead our expedition to the sacred valley where the entrance of the secret realm awaits!”

”WE OBEY LADY XUN!”

A thunderous, unified roar rose from all.

WHOOOOOOSH—

The immense profound ark slowly descended several hundred feet, anchoring its massive jade-and-gold hull just above the marble plaza.

Broad, glowing gangways of concentrated light unfurled from the ship’s lower deck, connecting directly to the stones below.

Without delay, everyone entered.

The sect disciples marched in disciplined, uniform columns under the watchful eyes of their respective Spirit Ascension elders, their banners held high and proud.

Behind them, the hundred independent victors surged forward with eager, restless energy, marveling at the intricate dragon carvings, soaring spiritual sails, and luxurious cabin quarters embedded within the White Dragon Sect’s flagship vessel.

Among the stream of entering cultivators, Shen Haoran walked up the ramp of light with his hands clasped casually behind his back.

His dark robes fluttered gently in the upward draft, his expression cool and detached as he stepped onto the deck, paying no heed to the reverent whispers and awe-filled glances of the native youths around him.

His eyes flicked subtly across the vessel’s primary formation arrays, already committing its structural schematics and defensive thresholds to memory.

All the while, several paces behind him, Shen Xun’er was walking with her head down, deeply depressed.

Her usually lively, energetic steps were heavy and sluggish, dragging across the glowing floorboards as if each boot were bound by ten thousand pounds of lead.

Her hands remained tightly clenched within her sleeves, her fingernails still biting painfully into the smooth jade entry token she had fought so bitterly to secure.

She couldn’t bring herself to look up.

Every cheering voice echoing across the deck felt like a direct, mocking strike against her pride.

She kept her eyes glued firmly to the wooden floor, watching Haoran’s long shadow stretch out ahead of her—a shadow that felt more distant, unreachable, and infinitely vast than the heavens themselves.

The freezing memory of his disappointed frown remained burned into the front of her mind, a relentless weight pressing down on her chest.

Her ribs still ached from Ba Tu’s hammer-like swings, and the stinging lacerations across her forearms pulsed with dull throbs, but the physical pain was completely overshadowed by the suffocating, dark storm of inadequacy churning inside her core.

’I disappointed him...’

The thought looped endlessly in her head, drowning out the ambient hum of the profound ark’s engines and the excited chatter of the passing sects.

’I am standing right behind him, yet I feel like I’m already being left behind.’

She swallowed the dry, bitter lump in her throat and stepped through the threshold of the lower cabin deck, shrinking quietly into the dim shadows near the hull’s edge, completely enveloped in her own private, crushing silence.

*

*

*

At this exact moment, far away under the blistering afternoon sun, the endless golden dunes of the vast desert seemed to stretch into eternity.

Heat hazes rippled violently across the horizon, warping the distant sandstone ridges into shimmering, dancing mirages.

Ling Luochen was following the group of weird people who kept talking weirdly.

She walked several paces behind the six green-robed youths, her delicate boots barely making an impression in the fine, scorching yellow sand.

Her long, vibrant pink hair was still neatly bound in its refined bun, and her form-fitting, backless black combat dress rustled softly in the dry desert wind, revealing the sharp, dark tribal tattoo tracing her porcelain spine.

Her left hand rested naturally against the cold hilt of the concealed blade at her slender waist.

Her crystalline pink eyes were narrowed into sharp, analytical slits, continuously scanning her bizarre companions.

Ever since she had landed in this desolate, sun-baked wasteland and asked where she was, these six individuals had been acting in the most incomprehensible, borderline unhinged manner she had ever witnessed in all her years of life across the Saint Burial Realm and the Imperial Academy.

They didn’t act like disciples from an established martial clan, nor did they display the cautious, blood-soaked paranoia typical of wandering rogue cultivators.

Instead, they constantly walked in erratic, jerky zig-zags, repeatedly jumping in place for no discernible tactical reason, and incessantly babbling an absurd, foreign dialect laced with ridiculous gibberish.

”Bro, I swear to God, the walking speed debuff in this desert biome is killing me,” the tall vanguard, [ThiccShieldNoBitch], complained loudly, his heavy wooden and iron shield clattering against his back as he clumsily kicked up sprays of sand with every stride. ”My stamina bar is draining like a leaky bucket, and my movement speed feels like I’m swimming through molasses! If the devs don’t patch in a mount system or a fast-travel waypoint soon, I’m literally going to riot on the official forums!”

”Shut up and stop griefing the escort pathing, you idiot,” scoffed their dual-dagger rogue, [SneakyBreeky69], ”Look at the pacing! This NPC has an auto-walk speed that perfectly matches our base sprint! That means the pathfinding in this game is straight-up peak tier! She’s not even glitching on the terrain meshes!”

”Guys, do you think she’d be a permanent NPC in our sect?” the support caster, [HealBot9000], chimed in, excitedly waving his crude wooden staff in the air while checking his floating holographic interface that only the players could perceive. ”Her tag said ’Imperial Academy’ and ’Shen Clan’, right? That sounds like a top-tier endgame faction from a future expansion pack! If we get our reputation from ’Neutral’ to ’Exalted’, do you think she’ll sell us high-tier skill books, or maybe teach us some other insane skills?”

”Bro, forget skill books, I’m aiming for the ultimate romance flag,” the archer, [SniperNoSniping], muttered, adjusting the quiver of crude wooden arrows strapped to his hip with a goofy, shameless smirk. ”Did you see her render quality? Her affinity meter has gotta be farmable! If I gift her enough rare spirit herbs and legendary monster drops, maybe I can unlock her exclusive companion questline and make her my waifu!”

”Stop gooning and just touch grass immediately,” the party leader, [xX_DragonSlayer_Xx], barked, rolling his eyes as he led the way over the crest of a massive dune. ”Stop simping, you degenerates! We are literally carrying the biggest lore drop on the entire server right now! A Level 61 NPC walking straight into our starter village?! This is a certified first server world event!”

”Couldn’t agree more,” grunted their second warrior, [BonkMasterFlex], resting his dented iron greatsword over his shoulder. ”We need to get as much advantages as possible before the game started the open beta.”

Listening to this relentless, mind-numbing stream of incomprehensible terms, Ling Luochen’s brow twitched with mounting, dangerous irritation.

What in the world is an ’NPC’?

What kind of forbidden, cursed demonic talisman is ’Gooning’?

And what cosmic law governs this ’debuff’ they keep whining about?

She subtly channeled her refined Nascent Soul divine sense to scan their heads, wondering if some subterranean mind-controlling parasite had hollowed out their craniums, but found only completely normal, albeit laughably weak and fragile soul inside them.

That was weird. She frowned.

They look like a puppet stuffed with a very small fragment of soul. But that shouldn’t be possible as the body wouldn’t be able to function with that very small soul fragment.

She thought for a moment before she decided to just leave it be, after all, it’s none of her business.

Eventually, after traversing the burning dunes for nearly two hours, the sandy slopes gradually flattened out into cracked, sun-baked clay terrain.

Ahead of them, nestled in a wide, rocky depression surrounded by crumbling sandstone bluffs, a small, dilapidated sect finally came into view.

The place looked like an ancient, ruined monastery that had been abandoned for centuries, only recently undergoing a chaotic, amateurish attempt at total reconstruction.

Crude, mismatched walls made of roughly cut yellow stones were being haphazardly stacked on top of broken foundations.

Scaffolding built from crooked desert timber leaned precariously against half-collapsed wooden pagodas and chipped jade pavilions.

Piles of dried mud bricks, unrefined iron ore, and freshly quarried limestone littered the dirt roads, while dozens of young men and women, all wearing the exact same green robes with the embroidered serpent badge, were running back and forth with wheelbarrows, pickaxes, and wooden hammers.

Yet, despite the back-breaking physical labor, none of these workers looked exhausted, miserable, or enslaved.

In fact, they were laughing, shouting, and chattering with manic, unhinged enthusiasm.

”Ayyy! Who has three more stacks of refined clay?! I need them to finish the [Rebuild the Outer Wall - Part 3] daily quest so I can hit Level 12 quickly!”

”Selling five units of copper ore for 50 sect contribution points! Need to buy that basic Qi Gathering Pill from the sect shop to unlock my second skill slot!”

”Bro, the reputation payout for cleaning the latrines is actually cracked! It gives 200 faction favor with the Game Master! I’m grinding this shit all day!”

Ling Luochen stopped at the broken wooden archway that served as the sect’s outer gate, her sharp pink eyes darting from one bizarre worker to another.

She observed their synchronized movements, their manic smiles, and the utter lack of discipline or martial reverence in their postures.

A sect full of weirdos? she immediately concluded with deadpan and certainty.

This was not a functional Cultivation sect.

It was a chaotic gathering of madmen who treated arduous labor like a joyous festival and spoke entirely in riddles and gibberish.

The moment Ling Luochen stepped through the threshold of the wooden archway alongside her six escorts, the entire construction site ground to a screeching, dead halt.

CLANG! THUD! DROP!

Pickaxes fell from numb hands, wheelbarrows tipped over, spilling gravel across the dirt, and dozens of green-robed disciples froze mid-stride, their eyes bulging as they caught sight of the breathtaking, pink-haired woman standing amidst the dust.

In a split second, an absolute, chaotic frenzy erupted as dozens of players dropped their construction tools and immediately flocked around them like a swarm of hyperactive locusts.

”HOLY MOTHER OF GRAPHICS! LOOK AT HER!”

”WHO IS THAT?! A NEW NPC?! A NEW FACTION ENVOY?!”

”THE DEVS HAVE TRULY BLESSED US! THANK YOU GODDESS OF THE RENDER ENGINE!”

The crowd surged forward, shouting and screaming with wild, fanatical awe, snapping imaginary screenshots and staring with unbridled, shameless appreciation at Ling Luochen’s sharp, peerless beauty, her vibrant pink hair, and the stunning, backless cut of her dark dress that accentuated her flawless porcelain back and glowing tribal tattoo.

”Yo, DragonSlayer! Where the hell did you find this goddess?!” a burly player holding a stone hammer yelled, desperately trying to push through the circle. ”Is this the main story quest trigger?! What’s her name?!”

”Step back! Form a single file line, you peasants!” [xX_DragonSlayer_Xx] roared with immense, puffed-up arrogance, holding up his wooden staff to keep the surging crowd at bay like a proud shepherd guarding a divine treasure. ”Don’t crowd the VIP! We found her out in the deep dunes after a literal spatial meteor strike! We triggered an S-tier hidden world event, boys!”

”That’s right! S-Tier!” [ThiccShieldNoBitch] bragged loudly, flexing his arms and basking in the envious stares of his fellow guild mates. ”You guys were stuck here carrying rocks and hauling mud like common laborers, while our elite strike team went out, slew an enraged Sand-Horned Rhino, and unlocked an exclusive Level 61 master-tier NPC! Her name is Ling Luochen! When this questline resolves, our party is going to be swimming in first achievement titles and legendary loot!”

”Level 61?!” gasps and shrieks of pure, hysterical disbelief rippled through the massive circle of players.

”Bro, 61?! That’s forty levels above the highest level player! She could literally one-shot this whole valley with a sneeze!”

”Can we talk to her?! Does she have repeatable daily quests?!”

”Miss Ling! Please take my quest item! I have ten pristine scorpion tails!”

Ling Luochen’s expression remained as cold and sharp as an ancient glacial peak.

The overwhelming sea of noise, the bizarre gestures, and the ridiculous propositions washed over her without piercing her calm, though the ambient temperature around her frame subtly plummeted, frost crystals invisibly crackling along the edges of the dust at her feet.

She didn’t draw her blade, but her terrifying Nascent Soul aura pressed down like an invisible mountain, causing the encroaching players to involuntarily shudder from a sudden, bone-chilling dread that pushed them back three paces.

Seeing the frost creeping across the dirt and realizing their high-level guest was losing her patience, [xX_DragonSlayer_Xx] quickly cleared his throat.

”Alright, clear the path, everyone! We’re taking her straight to the top brass!” the party leader shouted, waving his staff authoritatively. ”Make way for the VIP!”

Pushing through the dense, whispering sea of green-robed disciples who continued to gawk and murmur in reverence, the party led Ling Luochen through the newly cleared central plaza, past the half-rebuilt alchemical sheds and martial training grounds.

Soon, they arrived at the biggest, most intact structure in the entire settlement—the Sect Master Building.

It was a grand, three-story pagoda crafted from weathered ironwood and reinforced sandstone, standing tall atop a raised foundation of carved stone steps.

Though the roof tiles were aged and several dragon-headed eaves were chipped from past conflicts, it was clearly the administrative heart of the entire mountain valley.

A large, lacquered wooden board hung proudly above the grand double doors, inscribed with four bold, sweeping characters glowing with faint spiritual resonance.

Rising Dragon Sect.